Netflix Presents BADLAND Review — Not From Around These Parts

His rival appears: a grizzled desperado in a long brown coat, low-tipped black hat, a wide-legged gait, a silver pistol on each hip, one-week stubble on his chin, red cracks and scars across his cheeks, and a similar squint in the eyes. As the camera cuts to a closeup on his face, the final box in the registry of western tropes is checked: a condor screech, circling above and waiting for the corpse to fall.

 Two guns go off, as they must. The question of who lives to tell the story of this day should be an easy question to answer, if you’re as familiar with the genre as presumably Justin Lee hopes you are.

BADLAND Follows The Expectations For The Western As Closely As Possible

This is the  third chapter of Badland, a new western from writer/director Justin Lee. The gunslinger at the center of Badland is Matthias Breecher, played by Kevin Makely. A previous performer on Lee’s previous westerns, A Reckoning and Any Bullet Will Do, Makely has all the grit and grumble that fans of westerns will likely look for in a protagonist, in this writer’s view. The justification given here for his body count growing as it does, is a series of warrants issued by the government of the recently-victorious Northern United States, to track down and dispose of confederate generals still at large throughout the South.

This is the narrative thread that gives Badland its structure: after a brief opening wherein Breecher establishes his quick-draw credentials by mowing down the crew of unrepentant general Corbin Dandridge (Trace Adkins, whose subterranean voice rumbles the screen like an earthquake), the film moves through various episodes of Breecher’s different adventures to track down his targets.

Various episodes, however, may be too broad a term for them, as Badland contains only two. The first, regarding the dying Reginald Cooke (Bruce Dern) and his daughter Sarah (Mira Sorvino), has Breecher debating about the ethics of bumping off a man so close to his own death. The second, about a town under the tyrannical grip of the previously-mentioned hustler in a waistcoat (Jeff Fahey), has and wrestles with fewer of those ethical questions. The final chapter— if it can be called such at only ten minutes long— concerns Breecher’s relationship to fellow bounty hunter Harlan Red (film legend Wes Studi). Each chapter stands independent of the others, with its own set of characters, establishment of conflict, and pathway to gunfighting.

Netflix Release Stalks Along Like A Dying Man At High Noon

The earlier quote about an “old-fashioned dime-novel showdown” is the most revealing line in Lee’s film. Badland does feel, at all times, like the filmic equivalent of the novels by authors like Larry McMurty or Louis L’Amour. For fans of the genre, Lee’s western will satisfy an itch that major Hollywood releases don’t often scratch. Certainly, for fans of Lee’s aforementioned films, both released less than two years ago, Badland feels like a natural progression. The quality of the film, in terms of technical measures like the sound mixing and cinematography, is a step up from previous projects, in this writer’s view.

That stated,  you too may agree that Badland doesn’t hold much appeal if you aren’t already on board for Lee’s played-straight take on the western. The film’s treatment of its female characters is lacking––they are talked up as independent characters but in key plot moments they remain secondary. Similarly, the two Black characters are both sidelined in a room away from the main cast.  These retreats to dated stereotypes provide a litmus test for one’s enjoyment of Badland. Viewers more willing to overlook these outdated tropes may similarly be more forgiving of the film’s reluctance to push the western into a more unconventional plot.

About the Author:

Zach Barr (they/them) is a freelance director and writer based in the Chicagoland area. Their work has previously been featured by Newcity Stage, Scapi Magazine, and on their own blog The Hanslick Girls. Zach serves as the Literary Associate at Sideshow Theatre Company, and is a recurring participant in Chicago Dramatists’ Playwrights Aloud series. Find Zach Barr on social (@AdmiralZachBarr), or on their website.